


Minding the Business

by Leni



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: BtVS 06, Gen, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 08:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3127178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during the time Anya is a vengeance demon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minding the Business

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Marlex at [Comment Fic](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/587318.html?thread=81642806#t81642806). Prompt: **"I fucked her ex bc she fucked mine but now we're cool and I'm watching her dog this weekend"**

Anya felt like pinching the bridge of her nose. She had fallen off the habit, that was what had happened. A couple years without enticing young desperate women into voicing their darkest wishes, and now she couldn't even get this one to say a bad word about her ex or the friend he had slept with. 

Subtlety wasn't paying this time, she decided. "You must want bad things to happen to the bastard." she coached, "Come on, you can tell me."

Blue eyes, a little glazed with drink, looked surprised at the blunt question but then the girl shook her head. "No."

The girl meant that, too.

Anya stared at the thin brunette. She was wasting an entire night trying to ply a wish out of her. Sure, she had gotten here a little later than she was supposed to, but the Magic Box wouldn't look after itself and she'd learned that a demon with a steady cash flow could have a nice life in Sunnydale. Besides, she hadn't left it for _that_ long, and if anyone asked, it was part of her strategy. It was even true; in her vast experience, a few hours only made tempers boil further until vengeance was the only thing in a woman's mind. 

Not this woman, though.

"But... he cheated on you."

The woman shrugged. "We were on a break, really."

"He _cheated_ ," she emphasized. In Anya's recent experience among humans, cheating was still the kiss of death for a relationship. Willow had broken up with Oz, and Buffy and Riley had never really patched things up after that other Slayer got through with them. If Xander had ever cheated on her.... "And wasn't that girl your friend, too?"

"You know a lot," the girl realized, looking confused for a few seconds. She blinked hard, as if making sure that Anya wasn't an alcohol-induced hallucination, and then peered at her beer bottle. "Did I tell you that already?"

"Sure," Anya lied, and then let out a sigh. This was going nowhere. "Doesn't matter. What matters is... you deserve better."

"Yep."

"Nobody should be able to hurt your feelings," Anya continued. "You are an amazing, beautiful woman and if you want them to suffer, then they should!"

That speech had changed the minds of many hesitant women through the centuries, and the resultant wishes had been among Anyanka's best handiwork. But even she could tell that her heart wasn't in it this time, and the girl before her just shrugged again.

"'S all right," she said, then grinned foolishly. "I got back at her, anyway. Slept with her ex and made sure she found out."

Anya smiled too, seeing a silver lining to this cloud. "So... she's angry at that guy now?"

The brunette frowned. "Don't think so."

"At you?" Anya asked hopefully

"Nope. Though she screamed at me over the phone - she was pissed! - and when I tried to scream back, she hung up on me so I came to her work to yell back at her." She lifted her head and waved at a point behind Anya. Anya turned around to see one of the waitresses waving back. She groaned; she _really_ shouldn't have waited before following the pull from this woman's scorned feelings. "We decided she'd give me free drinks tonight and I'm watching her dog over the weekend. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"

"Whatever," Anya sighed. 

Once she had been the best at this business. She had cast curses beyond imagination, delighted D'Hoffryn with her inventiveness. She had created _new worlds_ ...and now she couldn't even get enough rage from a girl to wish a venereal disease on her former lover. "There's nothing you want, then?" she asked anyway, ready to get up and leave. She still had to do the accounting tonight; she was good at _that_ , at least.

"Well..."

Anya brightened.

"I sort of wish Tiny would stop drooling all over my shoes. He always does that when I stay over."

"I guess Tiny is not your ex boyfriend or your friend's?" At the brunette's look, Anya smirked humorlessly. "Of course not."

It was beneath her, but it _was_ a wish from a scorned woman, and... (after an hour of going nowhere with this girl, Anya perked up at the thought) ...and the dog wouldn't misbehave if there was a human mind controlling it, would it?

Anya smiled, pleased with herself. See? She could be inventive still! And she would prove that she was back in the game. She turned back toward her target of the night, and smiled further when the girl jumped back at her changed features...

"Done."

 

The End  
05/01/14


End file.
